ITAR-TASSDONETSK, July 27 /ITAR-TASS/. Several dozen civilians were killed in the Ukrainian military’s rocket and mortar fire on the center of the east Ukrainian town of Gorlovka, the local media reported on Sunday.
The number of deaths varies between 20 and 30 people, the media reported. Information on casualties is being specified.
The media reports say that the mortar and rocket fire was delivered from the outskirts of the town. One shell exploded near the Gorlovka central maternity home.
Ukrainian artillery destroys hospital, market, dwelling houses in Debaltsevo some 75 kilometres away from Donetsk, the press centre of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Sunday.
An eyewitness reported from the scene that a Ukrainian sell had destroyed two upper floors of a hospital where wounded Donetsk militia fighters were undergoing treatment. “So far, it is impossible to say how many people were killed – these floors are simply absent,” the press centre quoted him as saying.
Apart from that, several dwelling houses and a club where refugees had taken shelter had been destroyed. No information about casualties is available due to continuous shelling.
Debaltsevo, a big railway hub 74 kilometres away from Donetsk, has been under artillery shelling by the Ukrainian army for several days in a row. According to the DPR press centre, the town was left without electricity after today’s shelling.
Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions are involved in fierce clashes as the Ukrainian armed forces are conducting a military operation to regain control over the breakaway regions, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums.
During the military operation, Kiev has used armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. Many buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have had to flee Ukraine’s embattled east.